Are Clinical Predictors of Oral Malignancy Risk Changing? A Sample Study

Year 2022, Volume: 23 Issue: 2, 175 - 181, 30.06.2022

Nezaket Ezgi Özer Özkaya , Betül Karaca , Ceyda Gürhan , Hayal Boyacıoğlu , Umut Aykutlu , Pelin Güneri

Abstract

Objective: Our study assesss the clinical features of oral lesions that require histological examination and patient-reported symptoms to estimate the risk of malignancy and to determine the presence of any altered features.
Materials and Methods: Demographic characteristics of 70 patients and clinical features of lesions were analyzed using chi-square test, Fisher’s Exact test of Independence and discriminant function analysis.
Results: Margins, lymphadenopathy, patient’s self-awareness of the lesion associated with mass effect, surface texture, colour, ulceration, loss of function and pain were significant parameters indicating the risk of malignancy (p<0.05). Analyses of the parameters related to the high risk of malignancy have led to a statistical model for clinical differentiation of benign lesions from malignancies with an accuracy of 91.4% (p=0.016). The statistical model demonstrated that the most important discriminative features were margins, surface texture, patient’s self-awareness, lymphadenopathy, loss of function, ulceration, colour, and pain, respectively.
Conclusion: In our study, age, gender, duration and localization did not anticipate the nature of the lesion. Our statistical model showed that irregular/indistinct margins and surface textures and the presence of lymphadenopathy have a higher risk of malignancy.

Keywords

Oral lesion, oral malignancy, malignancy risk

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